Formerly the Taylor House Inn, a bed and breakfast, the home at 716 W. Broadway is for sale and here’s an online peek inside.
The pictures are poor and only give you a small view of what’s inside this 1909, but it’s nice to get a look inside this seven bedroom, five bath house. The house is 6,447 square feet and is for sale for $659,900. It is listed by Colby Ardrey of Coldwell Banker Tatie Payne Inc.
But these pictures don’t tell the real story of this house. This Colonial Revival home under went a $1.3 million renovation in 1999 by Deborah and Robert Tucker.
The history behind the home is even better. This two and one-half story home was built by a man who attended school only through the age of 12, when he was apprenticed to a cabinet-maker. Today, the age of being apprenticed to someone is long gone.
The story of John Newton Taylor and his wife Elizabeth F. Reed of Huntsville is told in the National Register of Historic Places. The home was placed on the Register on May 25, 2001 and named to Columbia’s Historical Preservation Commission’s List of Notable Properties in 2002.
716 W. Broadway, Taylor House, photograph courtesy of Columbia’s Historic Preservation Commission and FitzImages Photography
Born in Pennsylvania, John Taylor moved to Iowa and worked as a cabinet-maker. There he married Lida Stroup and they moved to Huntsville in Randolph County, Missouri. They went on to have four children, but she died in 1886 and he married Huntsville, native Elizabeth F. Reed in 1890. They went on to have seven children.
The Taylors built their house in 1909. John Taylor had piano and furniture stores in several mid-Missouri towns, including Columbia and gradually he went into the automobile business, even acquiring the local Dodge dealership before the car was even on the market, according to the NRHP nomination form. In 1917, Taylor ran an ad in the Boone County Atlas proclaiming himself a wholesale and retail dealer in pianos and automobiles, the document notes. Taylor also served on the board of directors for the Columbia Commercial Club, the forerunner of Columbia’s Chamber of Commerce.
By his death in 1932 at age 83, he was a prominent businessman. His obituary was printed on the front page of the local newspaper with a photograph, and the mayor and city council all attended. City employees were even given time off for the funeral, the NRHP document continues — noting his son Thomas Taylor was a city councilman at the time.
After his death, wife Elizabeth continued to live in the house with her daughter Eleanor, who was then an assistant professor at the University of Missouri. In 1935, Elizabeth had the house divided into a triplex and continued to live in the home. Elizabeth also developed the surrounding acreage.
As the years passed, the house passed out of the Taylor family and fell into some disrepair.
Then, in 1999, Deborah and Robert Tucker, then owners of Tucker’s Jewelry, renovated the home, converting it into a bed and breakfast. Then, in 2012, the bed and breakfast was suddenly closed.
The home was also featured in a January 13, 2010, Columbia Missourian article on an effort to have a section of West Broadway placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
All this in a home built by someone who only attended school through the age of 12 and then went on to become a cabinet-maker. Yes, historical homes do tell us about who were were and, in this case, with his automobile business, where we went.